LETTER: Why Was Gazette Mum about Closing the Basketball Court?

January 2, 2013

DEAR EDITOR:

The Gazette is the official Town newsletter. My question is, who is responsible for the Gazette, and who approves it?

Last Friday after discovering from local kids that our basketball backboards had been removed, I went to Mayor Dora Sullivan to report this. Her response was: “We don’t own them anymore.”

My reaction was — what? Why would the Town remove the backboards during the Christmas-New Year’s break?

She had no answer.

I asked the mayor if the closing of the basketball court had been posted on the Town website and Gazette. She said no, but that the Cape Charles Wave interviewed [Assistant Town Manager] Bob Panek about the backboards’ removal.

I am frustrated by the lack of knowledge available on the day-to-day business of Cape Charles. The Town felt it was important to post changes to the garbage pickup holiday schedule, but said nothing about removing the basketball goals.

What’s next? Pay raises for a job well done on giving away the school, basketball court, and playground parking lot for $10? [Read more…]

TUESDAY 1/15: Local Meeting to View Plans for Main Library

Public meetings will be held in Northampton and Accomack counties to view the preliminary concept drawings for a new Main Library in Onley as a follow-up to meetings held in May. [Read more…]

6 Months of WAVES — And Counting!

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year — or Happy One-Half Year, in the case of the Cape Charles Wave. Your hometown online newspaper is now six months old.

The Wave came about because two longtime journalists — one an old hand on the Eastern Shore, the other a newcomer — agreed that Cape Charles needed its own newspaper. In the days of print journalism, that would not have been practical for such a small town, but with the Internet it was doable.

And although the staff makeup has changed since July 1, we’ve been making WAVES for 26 weeks now.

The Google Analytics chart above tells the story, with each of the 26 dots representing one week’s readership. By August, we were humming along at close to 2,500 reads per week. After a lull, readership jumped in November, and after another lull, made the biggest gains in December.

Since only about 1,000 people live in Cape Charles, a lot of our readers obviously live out of town. In fact, about one fourth of them don’t even live in Virginia. And even among in-state readers, the majority reside outside Cape Charles town limits.

Whether tourists, or former residents, or future come-heres, it appears that a lot of out-of-towners are keeping up with the local news.

The purpose of the Wave is to serve as an electronic medium to spread news, events, and discussion about the Cape Charles area. As we begin a new year, the Wave wants to thank our “heroes” — the folks who have recognized the mission of the Wave and in one way or another have helped it to succeed.

In alphabetical order (by first name), our 2012 Wave heroes are:

— Audrey Nottingham, whose pictures and story of the Nativity scenes at Pfeiffer Riding Stables  gave us a wonderful Christmas present — not just for the report, but because Audrey fulfilled our highest hopes for the Wave: citizen journalists writing about and photographing a local event and publishing it in the Wave;

— Barbara Brown, for sharing her nice article and picture for publication;

— Bruce Lindeman, who writes eloquently, intimately, and regularly of his adopted part-time village and its denizens he knows so well;

— Deborah Bender, for commenting early and often on the Old School cause dear to her heart;

— Don Riley, the Wave’s “Man about Town,” who tips us off whenever he spots something that doesn’t look right, or smells fishy;

— Donna Bozza, for featuring the Wave on her Facebook page way back in July — our first big break! — and for her ESO and other arts publicity;

— Mayor Dora Sullivan, for reading the Wave every day and even sending in a comment or two, in contrast to the one or two Town Council members who refuse to read us (they say); [Read more…]

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